Incest cases in history, past and present times??

Question

Hey,

I am doing a project on incest and its "acceptance" in past and present times.

Does anyone know of incest cases, past and present, where a child was conceived by

1. Mom and son

2. Dad and daughter

3. Brother and sister

(Not cousins!!!)

I heard of the once case in Germany (broth and sister had a 4 kids) and the one is Austria (father and daughter had children together)

I know one faraoh in Egypt married his daughter and they had a child but cannot recall his name??

Anyone know of any more cases??

Answer 1

The Egyptians had this thing where Pharoah married his sister. I think the reason they did this was because the Pharoahs believed themselves to be descended from the Gods, and since the only descendants of the gods were in their family, who else would they marry and still keep the bloodline pure?

Answer 2

There was a case in the news recently about a man who kept his daughter prisoner in the basement for years, raped her regularly, and they had a bunch of kids together.

Answer 3

Fred and Rosemary West are a good example, although I don't think they conceieved any children, just raped and killed the ones they already had.

There was a case in Australia a few months back, some woman found her dad after having not seen him in many years, fell in love with him and had a child by him (she had two already from her previous marriage).

You'll find incest is not as uncommon as you would originally think (especialy among family members who haven't known each other since childhood), although you don't often hear about it due to it being so taboo, and it's even rarer that you hear of a child being born from the union.

Answer 4

There is the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus who slept with his mother and killed his father. While it is a myth, it is still worth pursuing as Oedipus was so horrified when he found out what he'd done that he pokes out his own eyes. This definately tells you that the ancient Greek society did not accept incest between mother and son.

It also might be good to have a literature example in your essay for a bit of diversity. Literature of a culture can tell you a lot about the culture it comes from.

Answer 5

The pharoh of Egypt prob -More like 30 or 40

And most of the Royalty of Europe To many cases to mention

Answer 6

Well, how about talking King Tut. Tutenkhamen (also spelled Tutankhamun) married Ankhesenamen, his half sister. It's said that they had two still born children.

It wasn't uncommon in ancient Egypt for the pharohs to marry their own daughters or sisters and have relations with them. Nor for that matter was it uncommon for Egyptian queens to do the same with their sons or brothers. Cleopatra married some of her own brothers.